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Articles Database Share this article on Facebook The Equine Market After more than twenty years of college, marriage, work and raising children, my first horse brought me back to writing. Two years later, I am a full-time freelance writer. The equine market remains one of my sentimental favorites. Sound crazy? I lost my first horse to equine infectious anemia (EIA) in 1975. Much like AIDS in humans, he was contagious and had to be humanely put down. I was only 17 and my heart broke. Life went on. As I approached forty, I decided to process my feelings about Mingo much like I did in high school, by writing them down. I typed away during my lunch hour, and afterward shared the story with an English teacher across the hall. She came to school the next day excited. "This is great!" she declared. "You need to submit this somewhere for publication." Since I subscribed to EQUUS, I put it in the mail to them with a short cover letter and forgot about it. Three weeks later I got an acceptance, request for a photograph to accompany the piece AND a check. I was amazed! To say I was hooked would be an understatement! As I continued to explore a variety of markets, I found homes for many of my articles in equine publications. I have even syndicated my own childrens equine mini-page, Young Rider Roundup. This fun and educational feature appears regularly in several regional equine publications, including The Equine Times, The New York Horse, Maverick Press, Equine & Mine, The Sentinel, The Alaska Horse and Happy Horse. I subscribe to the Equine Times, a monthly equine newspaper that circulates in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois. I read it from cover to cover each month. But I noticed that my thirteen year old daughter, a full-time horse owner and horse lover herself (as well as an avid reader) showed absolutely no interest in this publication! I would point out news and stories she might be interested in, but again I got very little response from her. (Even when they published a news article and photo I submitted!) Something was missing! I decided to create a kid's mini-page. Since I was targeting publication for the Equine Times April 1998 issue, I chose the Kentucky Derby as my theme. I wrote a 300-word piece called "The First Saturday in May," aiming for the younger reader but still something an adult might enjoy reading. I created a sidebar of Derby trivia, and added a crossword puzzle with a racehorse theme and a word search with the names of all the Triple Crown winners. Included in my letter to the editor was the Equine Times purpose statement: "to help identify horse owners' needs and to offer services to meet those needs." My sales pitch pointed out that, not only would this type of regular monthly feature appeal to younger readers, but adult 4-H leaders and horse trainers would also be able to use this material with their younger riders. I received a phone call from the editor five days after I put the proposal in the mail. He wanted to run my first submission in the April 1998 edition, and contract me to do a monthly kid's feature in the same format. I used my first two clips from the Equine Times to market Young Rider Roundup as a reprint to other regional equine publications. If you want to write for the equine market, here are some of my recommendations: Check out American Horse Publications online for a directory of more than 200 horse publications and contact information at: http://www.americanhorsepubs.org Here are some of my favorite equine markets: Appaloosa Journal (*see below for guidelines)
The Draft Horse Journal
EQUUS
Horse Illustrated
Horsepower Magazine For Young Horse Lovers
Paint Horse Journal (*see http://www.awoc.com/guidelines.cfm)
© Copyright 1999, Kim Marie Wood Kim Marie Wood is a freelance writer living in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Related articles:
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